Not guilty: The verdict in the manslaughter trial of Roderick Scott. After more than 19 hours of deliberations over two days, a jury acquitted the Greece man in the shooting death of Christopher Cervini, 17, last April.

"I just want to say thank you to the people who believed in me, who stood by me,” Scott said following the verdict. “I still have my regrets for the Cervini family; it's still an unfortunate situation for them. I am happy that at least this chapter is over."

As deliberations dragged on over two days and the jury asked for testimony to be read back, Scott admits he didn't know how it would all turn out.

"I was nervous of course,” he said. “You never know what direction this whole thing is going to turn, so I have no idea. But it worked out and I feel that justice (was) served today."

Cervini's family members say justice wasn't served. They say Christopher was murdered in cold blood, that he'd never been in trouble and Scott acted as judge, jury and executioner.

"The message is that we can all go out and get guns and feel anybody that we feel is threatening us and lie about the fact,” said Jim Cervini, Christopher’s father. “My son never threatened anybody. He was a gentle child, his nature was gentle, he was a good person and he was never, ever arrested for anything, and has never been in trouble. He was 16 years and four months old, and he was slaughtered."

Scott says he acted in self defense when he confronted Cervini and two others saying they were stealing from neighbors cars. He told them he had a gun and ordered them to freeze and wait for police.

Scott says he shot Cervini twice when the victim charged toward him yelling he was going to get Scott.

"How can this happen to a beautiful, sweet child like that?” asked Cervini’s aunt Carol Cervini. “All he wanted to do was go home. And then for them to say, he was saying, 'Please don't kill me. I'm just a kid,' and he just kept on shooting him."

Scott says the last seven months have been difficult for him and his family. If he could go back to the events in the early morning hours of April 4, there are things he says he would do differently.

"If it meant a person not losing their life, absolutely,” he said. “Would I still have tried to stop what was going on? That I would have done. But if I knew ahead of time that I could do something to help somebody from losing their life, I don't want anyone to lose their life."

Scott says the first thing he was going to do was go home and get a good night sleep. When asked if he'll continue living in his current home, which is just one street away from the Cervini's, he said “for the time being.”

This case has been presented in some quarters as an indicator that a different standard is applied to black people than "white" Zimmerman. ("Warning shot leads to a 20 year sentence!" etc.) Fascinating to read a more complete description of the facts.

An El Paso police officer allegedly knocked unconscious and then beaten violently by a 17-year-old died Friday morning at University Medical Center, police said. Officer Jonathan Molina, 29, who did tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Marine Corps, died a little more than nine days after suffering a fractured skull, internal head injuries and facial fractures.

The suspect, Juan Antonio Gonzalez, who had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting an officer, was charged with capital murder on Friday. Gonzalez, who was being held at the El Paso County Jail, saw his bond raised from $200,000 to $5 million.

"It is with a sad heart today that the El Paso Police Department is notifying you of the death of Officer Jonathan Molina," said Police Chief Greg Allen, who paused to control his emotions during a news conference at police headquarters. "Officer Molina will be sorely missed."

Based on three complaint affidavits, including one released Friday with the capital murder charge, here is what happened:

The incident started on Sept. 25 at 4:53 p.m. when Molina, who was off-duty, saw a young man scratch his personal vehicle with a piece of metal. The vandal was withtwo other man, one of whom was Gonzalez. The silver Pontiac Grand Prix had "fresh" scratches on its right side, hood and bumper. Molina left his home to confront Juan Antonio Gomez, who allegedly scratched the car. Police did not provide an age for Gomez, who, as of Friday afternoon, had not been charged with a crime. Gomez, Gonzalez and the other youth, identified as Alan Medrano, 19, ignored Molina and kept walking east on the sidewalk next to Trowbridge. Molina got into his car and followed them a way before parking in front of a home at 4120 Trowbridge. After getting out of his car, Molina identified himself as a police officer and confronted Gomez.

Molina was "attempting to begin an investigation," the affidavit says. Sometime during the confrontation, Molina asked a bystander to call 911. The situation began to escalate when Gonzalez stepped between the officer and Gomez. Molina "pushed" Gonzalez out of the way and redirected his attention to Gomez, the most recent affidavit says. Then Gonzalez allegedly punched Molina in the face with his fist, stunning the officer. Gonzalez then quickly grabbed Molina around his knees and jerked his legs upward, the affidavit says.

That caused Molina "to fall backwards and head first onto the concrete driveway," the affidavit says. The blow to Molina's head knocked him unconscious, it says.

Gonzalez then "squatted over (Molina) and began to beat (him) multiple times around the face and head," the affidavit says. Bystanders approached the group and the youths "fled the scene," the affidavit says.

An ambulance took Molina to University Medical Center. Police interviewed witnesses who provided statements and a physical description of the assailant that matched Gonzalez, the affidavit says. At 5:18 p.m., another police officer responded to the Trowbridge location on an "officer-down" call. Officer Jose Rosales drove east into the 5100 block of Trowbridge when he saw three men -- including Gonzalez, who matched the description he heard over the radio -- walking into some apartments. Gonzalez lives in that area.

As Rosales approached the three men yelling, "Stop, police," they ran into an alley to the north. Gonzalez and Gomez ran east down the alley, and Medrano ran west.

Rosales described all three over the radio and another officer detained Medrano in the 1300 block of Chadbourne Street. Medrano was charged with evading arrest and released on bond. Gonzalez was found and taken into custody.

Police later contacted Gomez, who gave a voluntary statement that was recorded on video. In his statement, Gomez admitted scratching the car, demonstrated the attack by Gonzalez and confirmed that Molina had identified himself as a police officer, the affidavit says.

Police would not discuss the investigation, and an El Paso County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman could not comment on it because prosecutors have not seen the case.

However, federal law states that 17-year-olds are not eligible for the death penalty, she said. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court split ruling outlawed the death penalty for anyone younger than 18.

As I ringmastered the "Dog Brothers Euro Gathering of the Pack" on Saturday I had a moment of insight related to the Zimmerman case.

The Gathering was held in a gym and even with the great integrity shown by the fighters when a fight went to the ground to not bounce their opponents' heads off the floor, I had a tremendous visceral sence of how fragile the human brain and skull are to such blows. Rarely do I stop a fight, usually choosing to let the fighter on the receiving end decide just how far he wants to take it, but on Saturday I stopped several fight on my own initiative out of concern for a punch knocking the head into the hard floor of the basketball court.

Now connect that with Z alone in the dark of a rainy night and an enraged TM hitting his head back onto a sidewalk. Assuming the testimony to be true, it sure meets my sense of "fear of grave bodily harm or death".

DEARBORN HEIGHTS, Mich. — Shortly before 1 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 2, a young woman, just a year out of high school, crashed the car she was driving along a residential street on Detroit’s west side.Related

In Detroit, Protests of Shooting of Woman Who Sought Help (November 11, 2013)

The woman, Renisha Marie McBride, 19, had veered into a parked car. As people emerged from their houses, she appeared disoriented and troubled, some witnesses said, walking off into the darkness before returning for a time, then walking off again. Someone heard her say she wanted to go home.

Several hours later and six blocks away, just outside the Detroit city limits in this mostly white suburb, Ms. McBride, who was black, was dead on the front porch of a stranger’s home, a shotgun blast to her face.

In the days since, the death has stirred long-simmering racial tensions between mostly black Detroit and its whiter suburbs and provoked comparisons to other racially charged cases around the country. Protesters held a vigil outside the house where she died, whose owner has not been publicly identified. The authorities say he thought Ms. McBride, who tests have shown was intoxicated, was trying to break in.

Anguished family members and friends, wearing shirts with messages like “Justice for Nisha,” say they believe that Ms. McBride was merely seeking help at random homes after the crash, and they were troubled that the man who shot her had not been arrested.

And civil rights activists in Detroit have pointedly recalled the cases of Trayvon Martin, the black teenager who was shot last year in a fatal encounter in Florida, and Jonathan Ferrell, a black man who was shot to death by a police officer in Charlotte, N.C., in September when he sought help after a car accident.

The Wayne County prosecutor was expected to announce on Friday whether charges would be brought against the homeowner, but essential details were still lacking to explain how a car accident had led, over a stretch of several hours in the middle of a night, to death on a tiny concrete porch.

Some people here cautioned against presuming that race played a role. Some neighbors of the man, who they said is in his 50s and lives alone in his small house, said the shooting struck them as a tragic accident. Most of all, a long list of questions remained unanswered about events that night, including what actually took place in Ms. McBride’s final moments.

“At the time I didn’t think much of what I was seeing,” said LeDell Hammond, 23, who said he was among a group of neighbors who observed Ms. McBride, seeming dazed, then disappearing, after the car crash along their block of Bramell Street. “But to have this end with that? It’s hard for me to find a way to make it add up.”

In a way, the anger here has become more muted since Kym L. Worthy, the Wayne County prosecutor, made it clear that her office was studying the case. Ms. Worthy, who is black, is widely viewed as a tough, independent prosecutor. She is known, in part, for her prosecution of two white Detroit police officers in the beating death in 1992 of a black motorist, Malice Green, and for pursuing criminal charges in 2008 against Kwame Kilpatrick, then Detroit’s mayor, who would eventually be convicted of federal crimes.

Even Ms. McBride’s family had praise for Ms. Worthy. “There will be justice,” Bernita Spinks, her aunt, said in an interview.

Ms. McBride, who graduated from Southfield High School last year, had once told her sister that she wanted to become a police officer, relatives said, but she had been working for a company that provides temporary workers for light industrial facilities, officials at the company said.

Ms. Spinks remembered her as an average student, a standout soccer player and mostly a loner whose father had spoiled her with several cars since she got her license. “She was a peaceful, kindhearted young lady,” Ms. Spinks said. Family members have said they last spoke with her around 11 p.m. on Nov. 1, shortly before the car accident.

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At 12:57 a.m., the Detroit police received a 911 call about a crash. A police spokesman said no police car was sent out because the call was deemed a low priority; no one was reported injured and the driver had left. Along Bramell Street, neighbors described hearing a speeding car and a loud crash, and then seeing a young-looking driver who left, returned, then left again.

Demonstrators outside the Dearborn Heights Police Station last week. Civil rights activists have pointedly compared the fatal shooting of Renisha Marie McBride in that mostly shite Detroit suburb to other racially charged cases around the country.

Monica McBride, the mother of the shooting victim, spoke to reporters after her daughter’s funeral. Another relative has expressed faith in the prosecutor’s investigation into the death.

At 1:23 a.m., the Detroit police got another 911 call about the accident, the spokesman said, from someone who said that the driver had returned and seemed intoxicated. Mr. Hammond said that at least one neighbor tried to offer Ms. McBride help, but she seemed not to respond. He said he could not see any visible injuries or bleeding. Mainly, he said, she seemed disoriented.

Detroit police officers and an ambulance arrived at 1:37 a.m., the police said, but the woman was gone. By 2:50 a.m., the car was towed and the police left.

Sometime before dawn — and even the timing of the events that followed remain unclear — Ms. McBride was shot in Dearborn Heights, just across Detroit’s border, as she stood on the front porch of a house along Outer Drive, a boulevard-like street of compact homes and trim lawns.

Beyond that, the police in Dearborn Heights, a suburb of about 57,000 people, 86 percent of whom are white, have released few details of the shooting, saying they are awaiting a decision by the prosecutor.

An autopsy showed that Ms. McBride, who was 5-foot-4 and weighed 184 pounds, had a shotgun wound slightly to the left side of her nose. There was no sign that the wound was from close range, the autopsy said. It deemed the death a homicide. Toxicology results showed that her blood alcohol content was nearly 0.218, or almost three times the legal limit for driving.

On a recent afternoon, no one answered the door at the house; the blinds were drawn and a doorbell was visibly broken. The police have said the homeowner believed that she was trying to break in. Cheryl Carpenter, a lawyer for the homeowner, who did not return calls for comment, told The Detroit News, “I’m confident when the evidence comes it will show that my client was justified and acted as a reasonable person would who was in fear for his life.”

But Ms. McBride’s relatives say that they believe her cellphone had run out of power, and that she was knocking on doors in search of help. “If he was scared, all he had to do was call 911,” said Gerald E. Thurswell, a lawyer representing Ms. McBride’s family. “Why would you need a shotgun for an unarmed girl outside your door? And the fact that she was intoxicated makes no difference at all.”

Michigan’s “self-defense” act states that a person may use deadly force if “the individual honestly and reasonably believes that the use of deadly force is necessary to prevent the imminent death of or imminent great bodily harm to himself of herself or to another individual.”

Legal experts said a criminal case would probably be complicated, in part because few people saw what happened.

“There’s likely only one eyewitness to this because the woman can’t tell her story,” said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University Law School. “There are things we’re just never going to know.”